We report the isolation and identification of seven bacterial strains and one 16 fungal strain from dead and diseased

15 We report the isolation and identification of seven bacterial strains and one 16 fungal strain from dead and diseased Scapteriscus borellii mole crickets collected 17 from a golf course in southern California. Using 16S and 18S rRNA gene 18 sequence analysis we identified the microbes as Serratia marcescens (red), S. 19 marcescens (white), S. marcescens (purple), Achromobacter xylosoxidans, 20 Chryseobacterium sp., Ochrobactrum anthropi, Tsukamurella tryosinosolvens, 21 and Beauveria bassiana. We performed a dose response curve for each of these 22 cricket-associated microbial strains (except T. tryosinosolvens) and two other 23 strains of S. marcescens (DB1140 and ATCC 13880). We found that all of these 24 microbes except O. anthropi were highly pathogenic to D. melanogaster 25 compared to the other strains of S. marcescens. Injecting the mole cricket 26 associated strains of Serratia into flies killed all infected flies in < 24 hours. For all 27 other strains, the median time to death of injected flies varied in a dose28 dependent manner. In vivo growth assessments of these microbes suggested 29 that the host immune system was quickly overcome. We used disease tolerance 30 curves to better understand the host-microbe interactions. Further studies are 31 necessary to understand in mechanistic detail the virulence mechanisms of these 32 mole cricket associated microbes and how this association may have influenced 33 the evolution of mole cricket immunity. 34 35